Freedom Summer

The Freedom Summer was a volunteer campaign undertaken by the Civil Rights movement during the summer of 1964 to register African-Americans in Mississippi for voting after voting rights laws were passed. Senator James Eastland and other important Southern Democrats opposed the rights of African-Americans to vote, and segregationists such as the Ku Klux Klan engaged in violence against activists. 1,062 people were arrested, 80 workers were beaten, 37 churches were destroyed, 30 black properties were destroyed, 4 workers were killed, 4 people were critically wounded, and 3 local African-Americans were murdered. The murdered people included Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, who were murdered by the Klan; Senator Eastland claimed that they had really gone to Chicago, and that their disappearance was a "publicity stunt". The Freedom Summer led to the creation of "Freedom Schools" to provide free education to African-Americans, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was caused by the summer.